Newslinks for Thursday 15th May 2014

Gove and Laws: we all agree about school meals

“The policy that we are rumoured to be at loggerheads about is the introduction this September of free school meals for all infant-age children. In fact, this is that rarest of political treasures: a policy that has true cross-party support. The idea was first mooted by Labour in 2009 but the economic crisis meant that they simply could not afford it” – Michael Gove and David Laws, The Times (£)

Cameron heads north to “love-bomb” the Scots

“David Cameron will today insist that Scotland ‘puts the great into Great Britain’ as he seeks to love-bomb voters north of the border considering voting for independence. The Prime Minister is embarking on a two-day anti-independence tour of Scotland following jitters in Westminster about the state of the ‘no’ campaign ahead of the referendum taking place on September 18” – Daily Mail

Bankers say bonus clawback rules are “unenforceable”

“The Bank of England’s proposals to impose the world’s toughest rules for clawing back bonuses from bankers could be unenforceable in the UK and would be illegal in some countries, an industry lobby group has warned. The central bank’s proposal, unveiled in March, would mean that bankers could be forced to give back cash up to six years after they had received and spent it and as much as a 11 years after a bonus was awarded” – Financial Times

Lamont: British soldiers should not be in the dock

“It is not just individual soldiers who are facing legal scrutiny from The Hague. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has warned that it will investigate the actions of figures much higher up the military hierarchy…This proposed inquiry could hardly be more ridiculous. It is absurd to imagine that British troops and senior officers have seriously engaged in any systematic war crimes or abuses” – Daily Mail

EU wrong to order Google deletions

“Perhaps the European Court of Justice wants to equal the US Supreme Court in a display of poor judgment. That might explain why it ruled this week that a 19-year-old directive means Google must remove some search results that people do not like” – John Gapper, Financial Times

Free speech must trump right to privacy – David Aaronovitch, The Times (£)

UKIP accused of scaremongering about Romanians and Bulgarians

“UKIP were accused of scaremongering by a Home Office minister yesterday after the number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in Britain fell slightly. Those in jobs from the two countries dropped by 4,000 in the three months after employment restrictions were lifted on January 1 compared to the three months before…Tory minister Anna Soubry said: ‘These figures just show that Ukip preys on people’s fears’” – Daily Mail

Oborne: only Farage looks at home in this post-democratic landscape

“Political parties used to belong to their members. Now they have fallen into the hands of a very small group of very rich men, who spend huge sums so that political experts like Mr Axelrod can churn out their corporate message…Only one politician seems to be entirely at home in this post-democratic landscape…Nigel Farage” – Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph

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